Page 11 of Beautiful Lies
“Love isn’t always enough.”
“Maybe not.” He shrugged. “But that’s for you to decide. All this oversharing is exhausting. Zeke’s office hours are officially over.”
“And I guess we are, too.”
“We can still be friends.” He flashed me a smile.
I groaned. “That’s such a line. But somehow you make it work.”
“What can I say? It’s a gift.”
“Thanks for everything. I don’t regret a single minute of it.”
“This is starting to sound like an after-school special.”
“We’re pathetic,” I said, and then we were laughing and hugging.
I wished that things could be different. Loving Zeke would be so damn easy. But it wasn’t meant to be.
Maybe you couldn’t choose the person you fell in love with. Over the years, I’d tried so many times to steel my heart against Connor, but he always came in like a wrecking ball. He knocked down all the walls, destroyed the foundation, and left me with the rubble. Our brand of love would never make an after-school special. It was ugly and gritty and soul-destroying. Connor and I…there had been so many obstacles in our way.
But for a while, our love had been beautiful, and it had been everything.
How could you hate someone and love them at the same time?
3
Ava
Ten Years Ago
My empty stomach churned as I made my way down the crowded school hallway, the dingy beige walls closing in on me. I swallowed down the fear and popped another piece of gum in my mouth. No matter what I did, I couldn’t rid my mouth of the bad taste. My mom had believed me when I told her I had a stomach bug. I couldn’t keep food down. I barely left my room all day Friday. The same went for Saturday and Sunday. Now it was Monday. Time to face my personal hell. I pulled my beanie lower, hiding my shorn hair that I’d hacked off this morning, my white-blonde locks falling to the tiled bathroom floor. When my mom had seen what I’d done, she’d been rendered speechless. Not an easy feat but I’d managed to do it.
“You’ll do anything for attention,” Lana had hissed.
My footsteps faltered as I got closer to my locker. Would he be there? With that smirk on his face? His voice taunting me. My vision blurred, and the hallway tilted. I took a few deep breaths until the world righted itself again and shoved the memories down deep inside where they couldn’t resurface.
In the sea of bodies, one stood out. Killian Vincent was hard to miss. At eighteen, he looked more like a man than a boy. It wasn’t just that he was built like a young god or his height which was at least a foot taller than me, he could intimidate lesser mortals with just one look. Apparently, he had a notoriously bad temper and was always getting into street fights. Or so I’d heard from my sister Lana and her friends who were seniors, like him.
Yet Killian had been my savior.
My gaze swung to the guy on his right. Connor. A freshman like me. His dark hair messy and a little too long, his blue eyes so blue they didn’t look real. Connor was the pretty one, I’d always thought, with finer features and long eyelashes that girls would envy. Something that probably would have horrified him if I’d said it aloud. Which I wouldn’t. We’d never spoken.
But watching the Vincent brothers in church every Sunday had been one of my favorite pastimes. Thanks to my mom who got all the gossip at the salon and liked to pass it on over family dinners, I knew their mother had run off ten years ago, leaving Seamus alone to raise the boys. My mom always shook her head and sighed, calling the man a saint, but I’d never trusted Seamus Vincent’s steely blue eyes and hard face. Sometimes Killian would be sporting a black eye, or a split lip and Connor would get dragged to his feet by the scruff of his neck when he failed to stand on cue during Mass. But Seamus Vincent was a pillar of the community, and nobody ever questioned his parenting skills.
As I got closer, I realized they must be waiting for me. Why else would they be standing in front of my locker?
“Hey Ava,” Connor said. “I’m Killian’s brother, Connor.”
I nodded, no words of greeting coming out of my mouth.
“You good?” Killian asked.
I nodded again. His gaze swept over my face, trying to decide if I was lying. I could see that he knew I was, but he crossed his arms over his wide chest and nodded once. He wasn’t going to call me out on it. My gaze swung to Connor. His lips tugged into a soft smile. It was too sweet, and I didn’t know how to handle it, so I studied the intricate blue and black designs on his left forearm that he must have inked with Sharpies. Birds? Did they continue past his elbow where his blue plaid shirt was cuffed?
“If Jake Masters comes anywhere near you again…” Killian said, drawing my attention to him. “If he even looks at you or breathes in your direction, you let me know and I’ll take care of it. Understand?”
I nodded, which seemed to be the only thing I was capable of. Killian raised his brows at Connor and a look passed between them that seemed to communicate more than words could. Then he turned on his heel and strode away. It was only after he was gone that I realized I’d never thanked him for coming to my rescue. I busied myself with hanging my coat in the locker and packing my books for today’s classes. Shouldering my backpack, I slammed my locker shut and spun the dial on the padlock. Connor was still there, leaning against the locker next to mine. His eyes were trained on my face, but I got the feeling he was taking it all in. The oversized hoodie, baggy sweatpants stuffed into my Ugg boots, the dark circles under my eyes.
